EA: Tablets Could Be More Powerful Than Consoles By 2018

"Deeper" and "more
immersive" games like you'd normally find on your Xbox or PlayStation
consoles could be headed to tablets, EA executive says.

Speaking today during the 2015 Technology, Internet & Media
Conference, Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen said he believes tablets
as gaming devices could grow in popularity and become a more meaningful
part of the company's business going forward.

As tablets get more and more powerful, they will be able to offer a
console-style experience, he contends. This, along with the portable
nature of tablet gaming (play on the bus, at your friend's house,
anywhere really) might make tablet gaming a big category for the
company.

"What gets us the most excited is the power, the computing power, of
mobile devices and the speed at which that's growing," he said. "What
that might mean is that a tablet, three or four years from now, has more
power than what a typical console has. And that will open up a whole
new set of people to console-style games that are much more immersive,
much deeper, much more character-driven than simply a static mobile game
that you might play for a small burst of time while you're waiting for
the bus."

"And so we're looking for ways that we can essentially blend those two
models to have a more immersive but movable game experience," he added.
"Could be in your living room, could be on the bus, or it could be in a
friend's house. Much more portable than it is today. And that for us is a
huge opportunity."

This is not to say EA is backing away from game development for traditional consoles like the Xbox One or PlayStation 4. Far from it, as the publisher has a range of big-name games lined up for those platforms as far into the future as Battlefield 5 in 2016 and beyond.

What do you make of Jorgensen's comments about what may lie ahead for tablet gaming? Let us know in the comments below!